Fonterra Full Year Profit Sours 11%
Blame wet weather (and the big dry in eastern Australia) for the weak full year profit from Fonterra the world’s biggest dairy exporter.
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Fonterra Lobs Murray Goulburn Bid
Fonterra, the world’s biggest dairy cooperative and a major exporter, is looking to add Australia’s largest dairy processor the troubled Murray Goulburn to its already dominant position in trans-Tasman dairying.
Read MorePeter Alexander, Smiggle Spurs Premier Profits
As sales of some of its main Australian brands slowed in the closing months of 2016-17, Premier Investments was saved by another solid performance from what are emerging as its two growth engines – the Smiggle and Peter Alexander chains.
Read MoreWill Lachlan Murdoch Buy Seven?
Will Lachlan Murdoch buy Seven West Media? First let’s get Ten out of the way. The clock starts ticking on FIRB approval from this Thursday on the CBS deal to buy Ten.
Read MoreIron Ore Price Craters
No sign of any support for tumbling world iron ore prices which lost nearly 12% last week and are now down more than 17% so far in September with a week to go.
Read MoreApple Shares Suffer After Product Launch
Apple shares had their worst week in 17 months amid mixed reviews on its slate of new iPhone and watch offerings and growing concern about muted demand for the new iPhone 8.
Read MoreDiary: Electoral Wash-Up, Fedspeak, China Manufacturing
A quiet week for markets, but the wash-up of the German elections (and to a lesser extent NZ in our part of the woods) will dominate thinking for the early part of the week.
Read MoreGold Softer, Oil Recovers Ground
Gold futures eked out a small gain Friday but still lost ground over the week, while oil futures finished with a solid weekly rise as prices remained well over $US50 a barrel.
Read MoreASX Slips As Global Markets Gain
World stockmarkets were mostly higher last week – Australia was the prominent exception with a small 0.2% drop that was as much to do with the sell off in iron ore as any other factor.
Read MoreNew Hope Helps Soul Patts Double Profit
Brickwork’s associate, Soul Pattinson has more than doubled full-year profit to an all time high thanks to strong performances from its investments in coal miner New Hope Corporation, Brickworks and telco TPG Telecom.
Read MoreInvestment Earnings Underpin Brickworks
Building products group Brickworks’ full-year net profit has more than doubled to $186.2 million, helped by a land sale and increased investment earnings, but not so much its signature building products arm – its brick manufacturing operations.
Read MoreCBA Joins Vertical Integration Exit
The break up of Australia’s big bank oligopoly is happening faster than either investors, a slothful Federal government, regulators or the late to the scene Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, or investors can comprehend with the news Thursday morning that the embattled Commonwealth Bank has not only sold its insurance business, but is eyeing the sale or float of the country’s biggest privately owned fund manager and its $219 billion in assets.
Read MoreTabcorp, Tatts Still Confident Of Merger
Tabcorp still hopes to put its merger with rival Tatts to a shareholder vote in mid October as planned, despite Wednesday’s Federal Court decision to refer the deal back to the Australian Competition Tribunal for a rehearing.
Read MoreRio Ups Buyback After Coal & Allied Sale
Rio Tinto has boosted its current share buyback to $4 billion with adding an additional $US2.5 billion to its program from the proceeds of the sale of Coal & Allied to Yan Coal of China.
Read MoreFed Spooks Goldbugs
While the overnight ASX futures market has the local market opening a touch stronger later this morning, watch for a big sell-off in gold stocks and iron ore stocks after the prices of both commodities plunged overnight.
Read MorePeak China
Peak China is something investors in the Australian market will have to start considering, especially in the resources sector. That’s not me speaking but the Reserve Bank.
Read MoreFed Ready To Unwind, Shrugs Off Inflation ‘Mystery’
Despite cutting its inflation forecasts for the next two years to well below its 2% target, the US Federal Reserve has lined up four more rate rises between now and the end of 2018, as well as kicking off the winding back of its huge $US4.5 billion balance sheet.
Read MoreCoates Deal Forces Seven Into Equity Raising
Did Kerry Stokes and the Seven Group board blink in the wake of the huge surge in debt the company would be carrying after the purchase of the 53% of Coates Hire it doesn’t already own?
Read MoreAustralian Unity To Sell GU Health To nib
Shares in health insurer nib Holdings went into a trading halt yesterday after revealing plans for a capital raising to fund a $155.5 million acquisition of corporate health insurance provider GU Health.
Read MoreSeven Group Buys Out Coates Hire
It’s been talked about for years, mentioned for months and then negotiated for almost as long – or so it seems from the numbers of reports to that effect – we are talking about Kerry Stokes’ key company, Seven Group Holdings finally buying the 53% of Coates Hire it didn’t own from Carlyle Group and others for $517 million.
Read MoreFederal Court Derails Tabcorp, Tatts Merger
The Federal Court has blown up the $11 billion merger of the two gambling giants, Tabcorp and Tatts.
Read MoreBed Bath & Beyond Adds To Retail Gloom
America’s retailing gloom continues.
Read MorePlaytime Over For Toys ‘R’ Us
As expected the Toys ‘R’ Us chain has collapsed in the US, going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday night leaving the fate of hundreds of stores and 64,000 thousands of employees around the world up in the air.
Read MoreTPG Takes The Long View On Mobile
TPG has slashed its final dividend to preserve cash as it begins the investment build up for its new mobile phone network, as well as facing growing pressures from the NBN.
Read MoreNew Hope Swings Back To Profit
Coal miner New Hope Corporation, which is a part of the Washington H. Soul Pattinson group of companies has swung to an annual profit on the back of stronger sales and sharply improved coal prices – much from its from its recently purchased stake in the huge Bengalla mine in the Upper Hunter Valley of NSW.
Read MoreChina Housing Growth Cools Further In August
More evidence yesterday that China’s buoyant housing sector is losing some of its bounce.
Read MoreToys ‘R’ Us Headed For Bankruptcy
From an existential threat to retailers worldwide in the 1990’s to possibly the biggest victim of America’s retail malaise so far in 2017 – that’s what lies ahead of fallen idol, Toys ‘R’ Us this week.
Read MoreEvolution Divests Edna May Gold Mine
Evolution Mining trimmed its 2017-18 gold production guidance and cut its costs estimate after selling the high cost Edna May mine to Ramelius Resources for up to $90 million.
Read MoreSpeculation Mounts Over Media Deals
The shrinking of the Australian legacy media is underway with the Financial Review yesterday reporting that Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media is talking to Fairfax Media about a potential marriage – that’s after everybody’s favourites, Fairfax and Nine Entertainment failed to agree to an engagement.
Read MoreNo Worries As Wall St Holds Record Highs
After reaching new all-time highs during the Monday trading session, Wall Street’s two main indexes – the S&P 500 and the Dow closed at record levels for yet another day.
Read MoreLaws Won’t Fix The Media Sector
The new laws won’t take the fading Australian media sector into the future, but allow it to go back to the comfortable past when they dominated the media they understood and rejected or kept out what they didn’t want-such as pay TV, offset printing, and the early rise of digital technologies (such as computer-based editing and production systems – often with help from the print and journalists unions).
Read MoreMedia Reform Harks Back To 70s
So much for the brave new world of online, taking on Facebook, streaming video, getting fit, helping employment and freedom of the press and maintaining that a healthy media is good for democracy – all claims made by the Turnbull Government and supporters of the media law changes from Kerry Stokes, through to News Corp, Southern Cross and Fairfax’s Greg Hywood.
Read MoreCommodities End Mixed Over The Week
Another mixed week for commodities with most drifting lower on Friday and over the week (especially iron ore) as the US dollar firmed – only oil stood out.
Read MoreUS Markets Hit New Highs
The two-day US Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting this week will dominate markets this week.
Read MoreDiary: US Fed Meets, RBA Minutes, Brexit Update
Investors will be looking for leads from the latest economic data and the US Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting that ends early Thursday morning, Sydney time.
Read MoreWhere To For A Weak Myer?
The stupidity of the Australian investment analyst and many investors knows no bounds – their combined capacity to ignore the blinding obvious and look for the faint or non existent positive when it suits them is legendary – and the latest results of Myer are another example.
Read MoreJobs Growth Surprise In Unemployment Data
Australia’s labour market grew at its fastest for four years confirming expectations at the Reserve Bank for a recovery in demand for labour, and supporting the confident forecasts this week from the National Australia Bank.
Read MoreInside The Media Law Reforms
With the Senate approving the proposed media law changes that will allow the country’s remaining publishers, TV and radio stations to marry in haste and lose money (and repent) at leisure, a bankruptcy hearing in far away Anchorage, has relevance to what will happen in Australia.
Read MoreChina Data Blips Or Dips?
Now here’s an unexpected surprise. Chinese government data out yesterday revealed that growth in retail sales and industrial production last month slowed unexpectedly as expansion in fixed asset investment dipped more than anticipated hit the lowest growth rate for 18 years.
Read MoreIEA Sees Oil Market Moving Back Into Balance
US oil prices hit at a five-week high and Brent crude rose to their highest since April, after a report from the International Energy Agency that showed global crude production fell for the first time in four months in August with some of that due to the impact of Hurricane Harvey.
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